World IPv6 Launch Day: Escaping the IPocalypse

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Do not adjust your NIC: As of this morning, unbeknownst to you, you might be surfing the IPv6 internet. Your memorable, 4-to-12-digit IPv4 address may have been replaced by a gribbly IPv6 monster that looks something like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000: 0000:8a2e:0370:7334. In a world that has virtually exhausted its IPv4 address pool, and with internet-connected devices expanding exponentially, this is a very good thing.

Today, following a successful one-day test on June 8 2011, is World IPv6 Launch Day. From this day on, permanent IPv6 routes will traverse the internet. Almost every major US ISP, and a bunch of network operators in Europe and around the world, has pledged to provide an IPv6 connection to all new subscribers, and begin upgrading their existing user base. Many major websites, including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Bing, will support IPv6 connections from this day forth. Rounding out the last mile and closing the IPv6 loop, Cisco (Linksys), D-Link, Zyxel, NEC, and Yamaha have pledged to sell routers that support configuration-free IPv6 — much like IPv4 today.

If your ISP’s local network and router support IPv6, and you visit an IPv6-enabled site, you will surf the IPv6 internet! If you’re not one of the few who will be automatically connected to the IPv6 internet, you should be able to contact your ISP to obtain an IPv6 address (assuming ISPs train up their customer service reps…)

The main impetus behind the adoption of IPv6 is that IPv4, which uses a 32-bit address, only supports a maximum of 4 billion IP addresses (a lot like the 4GB memory limit on 32-bit computers). 4 billion might sound like a lot, but in 2011 — according to Cisco — there were no less than 10.3 billion devices (PCs, routers, smartphones, tablets) connected to the internet. By 2016, if society’s love affair with mobile computing and smart devices continues, Cisco estimates that this number will increase to 18.9 billion. At the moment, Network Address Translation (connecting multiple PCs through a single internet-connected router) has allowed us to eke out those 4 billion addresses — but very soon now, irrespective of NAT, we will run out of IPv4 addresses.

It might look like an IPv4 router -- but it supports IPv6 too!

IPv6, which uses 128-bit addresses, dramatically increases the pool of IP addresses from 4 billion to 340 undecillion — 340 followed by 36 zeroes. With the world’s current population, this equates to roughly 48×1028 addresses per person — which is hopefully more than enough for the foreseeable future, even taking into account smart houses where every gizmo under the roof is connected to the interwebs, or the interplanetary expansion of the internet (galnet, as I like to call it).

In case you’re wondering, IPv4 isn’t going anywhere: For the time being, IPv4 and IPv6 will continue to work together side by side in a “dual stack” implementation. For more technical details, read our IPv6 explainer.

Tagged In

They keep pushing IPv6, and while they really /should/ they also really should rethink some things.

A fundamental difference is that they want to get RID of NAT, and a lot
of people are going to have trouble wrapping their minds around that.

Especially since instead of just giving out one or two IP addresses to
houses, they want to give whole blocks now. But to the point it’s
insane, I wanted a small IPv6 tunnel and I got a whole /48 block. That’s
1208925819614629174706176 addresses (80 bits). WHY would you do this? I
don’t get it, do they want the IP exhaustion to just move to the next
type of addressing?

So yea, IPv6 is great and all, but they should be careful as to how
they’re rolling it out. It’s young, a lot more complicated than IPv4 and
leaves a lot more security holes (google for them, there’s some crazy
ass man in the middle attacks),
so I hope this won’t turn into a
nightmare.

Derek Wilson

Why would they do this?
48×1028 addresses per person = 48 followed by 28 zeroes. You’ve got 12×10^23 and you are complaining that you’ve been given too much? You have enough addresses to pass down to your children and grandchildren for at least 10 generations, and you think they are going to run out of address space?

It’s not about what you THINK you can do, it’s about using the space you are given wisely, because honestly, what need would I have for a /48 block?
Instead, what if in the near OR distant future, we’ll start making nanoprobes with internet addresses, and we’ll create a few trillion of those?
They did the exact same thing back when they were designing IPv4, “Lets just give everyone entire /8 blocks! We don’t foresee a need beyond 4 billion addresses any time soon, haha!” And here we are.

I’m just saying, I can’t look into the future, but why give out such ridiculous blocks when you have absolutely no purpose for them?

I think the feeling among some Internet users that they are being somehow “pushed” toward IPv6 is an inevitable side-effect of the reasons for the transition not quite registering with so many folk. You see, it isn’t merely about the Internet on PCs/Macs, but also in smart mobile devices, and in future M2M connected systems, such as home automation systems, agricultural tools, shopping malls and more. Thing is, in theory at least, all these systems need an IP address, and the rate of proliferation for these things is only going to grow, rapidly, driving further need for IPv6. Orange have attempted to explain things a little right here: http://blogs.orange-business.com/connecting-technology/2012/06/infographic-why-the-connected-age-needs-ipv6.html
Hope this helps boost the discussion.

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